Thursday, November 27, 2008

Avondale in 1927

These photos were first published by the Auckland Sun in August 1927, just as the poll result for the amalgamation of Avondale with Auckland City was announced (see "Borough's End"). They show Avondale just at the start as a suburb. Top is the Avondale Shopping Centre -- left is the Avondale Hotel, in the distance the manual training blocks for the primary school, at right is the local bootmaker's shop, next to Pages' Store (with the distinctive facade detail) then the local dentist/chemist. Great North Road was recently concreted in 1925, the old trough and lamp has gone, and traffic islands and roundabout are in the future.

The bottom photo is from Blockhouse Bay Road. To the right of the centre pole is the domed shape of the Avondale Town Hall (now the Hollywood Cinema), with the wooden public hall beside it. Just to the right, but across St Georges Road, is Avondale Presbyterian Church (the name St Ninians was to come in the 1930s). Note the empty ground around the church. Most of that is now Memorial Park and the Mobil service station along Great North Road.

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"He that would know what shall be, must consider what hath been." -- H.G. Bohn, Handbook of Proverbs, 1855.

"...here's the beginning. Everything needs a beginning, otherwise we'd all start in the middle and get terribly confused by the end." -- Timespanner, 20 September 2008

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